Chantal Sebire, whose case reignited the debate about euthanasia, has been found dead in her home.

Euthanasia debate woman found dead at home

Extract from the Telegraph:

"A French woman with a rare and painful facial tumour which left her so horribly disfigured she tried to get approval for doctor-assisted suicide, has been found dead in her home.

Dignitas uses gas, plastic bag in assisted death Chantal Sebire, 52, a former school teacher and mother of three, whose case reignited the debate about euthanasia, was found dead at her home in the eastern town of Plombieres-les-Dijon, a French government official said. The circumstances of her death were not immediately clear. On Monday, a court in the city of Dijon rejected Mrs Sebire's request to be allowed to receive a lethal dose of barbiturates under a doctor's supervision."

French court has denied Chantal Sebiré, a woman disfigured and in agony, permission to have a doctor-assisted suicide

Disfigured French woman loses euthanasia bid

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Euthanasia is legal in Belgium and the Netherlands. Luxembourg is in the process of passing a law allowing it, while in Switzerland doctors can prepare the lethal dose but patients must take it on their own.

Mrs Sebiré, who has children aged 29, 27 and 13, was diagnosed nearly eight years ago with esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer.

France has been moved by pictures of the woman before and after her illness, which has left her face severely deformed.

Appealing on French television last month, she said she could no longer see properly, taste or smell.

She described how children ran away from her in the street.

She cannot use morphine to calm the intense pain in her swollen eyes because of the side effects, has difficulty eating, sleeps sitting up and often suffers haemorrhages.

Despite her heart-rending pleas, health minister Roselyne Bachelot said that "neither the medical world nor the government can promote euthanasia, no matter how serious the illness"."

I consider it both foolish and extremely cruel for this suffering woman to be denied her rational request. What do you think?